In the glory days of the video arcade, no idea was too weird for a multi-thousand-dollar machine built around a CRT. Take, for example, two of Sega’s more obscure late ’90s arcade cabinets: Magical Truck Adventure (which does not feature a truck) and Emergency Call Ambulance (which does feature an ambulance). Released in 1998 and 1999, neither has been re-released in any sort of arcade collection or made available digitally until now, via in-game emulation in Yakuza 3 Kiwami. Both are delightful.
Magical Truck Adventure is classic Sega arcade stuff: bright and bubbly and immediately throwing all sorts of stuff at the screen within seconds. You take control of one of two kids operating an old-fashioned train handcar, chasing down a pair of crooks who’ve stolen your magical jewel and decided to flee by rail, making them incredibly easy to catch.
At least if you’re in good shape: the physical arcade machine requires you to constantly pump the handcar’s lever to maintain speed, while a pair of pedals allow you to lean left or right off the rails and jump over the barrels and other random obstacles they hurl your way. You also teleport/time travel between stages, naturally.
Magical Truck Adventure is a short game (with a few branching paths depending on how well you do in each stage), which is ideal considering how tired your arms will be after a couple levels. I’ve played the real arcade machine several times and never gotten past the second level, so I enjoyed playing the emulated version at a recent Yakuza Kiwami 3 preview event immensely. Flicking a couple analog sticks up and down is a lot less tiring!
This emulated version of Magical Truck Adventure can’t capture the fun gimmick of controlling a game via frantic lever action, but it’s still a fun, cute game that I’m glad people can now play without seeking out an incredibly rare arcade cabinet.
Emergency Call Ambulance, meanwhile, I have never seen in an arcade or indeed even heard of, but it is nuts. You’re an ambulance driver speeding away from the scene of some disaster with a grievously wounded patient, and each level is an on-rails course that gives you just enough time to make it to the hospital, assuming you don’t collide with oncoming traffic or take even a few turns a little too slowly. In the first level, another ambulance briefly passes you in haste and then immediately careens off the road into the sea.
This game really feels like it belongs to another era, when arcade designers were trying to transplant any job or situation into a game you could play in three minute bursts. It’s simultaneously hilarious and incredibly morbid: if your passenger’s health ticks down to zero before you reach the hospital, the screen fades to black as they whimper “I don’t want to die!” A green heart monitor flatline appears on screen for about one second before it starts playing jolly music and tallying your score.
I can’t think of a better pairing for Yakuza’s tonal whiplash between character melodrama and absurd sidestory hijinks. It’d be a stretch to say they’re worth paying $60 for Yakuza Kiwami 3 all by themselves, but I’m very glad Sega has scooped them out of arcade obscurity after so long. Kiwami 3 is out on Steam on February 11.
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